Team UNICEF takes to the football pitch in a new television campaign

Paulo Wanchope of Costa Rica is one of many footballers featured in the ‘Superfans’ public service announcements.

By David Koch

NEW YORK, USA, 18 May 2006 – UNICEF launched a new set of dynamic public service announcements today: ‘Superfans’.

MTV International in London produced the television spots to support UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE FOR PEACE, the UNICEF-FIFA campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. FIFA is the global governing body of professional football.

Fifteen world-famous players from 15 World Cup countries came together in a virtual 'Team UNICEF' and pledged their support to help promote a more peaceful, nonviolent world. MTV embarked on an epic, month-long, worldwide shoot to capture these elite players and solidify their support for children.

David Beckham is the captain of Team UNICEF in the UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE FOR PEACE campaign leading up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

“It makes perfect sense that these three dynamic partners – FIFA, UNICEF and MTV – would come together to produce a compelling and exciting campaign for the world's biggest sporting event, to raise awareness about the power of football to create a better world for children,” said UNICEF’s Sport for Development Officer, Alison Qualter-Berna.

'Superfans' brings these players together with young football players in a series of unexpected vignettes. As sport transcends language, there is no script in the traditional sense…but football, the game, speaks louder than words.

UNICEF’s ‘Superfans’ public service announcements promote the UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE FOR PEACE campaign.

MTV International’s Vice President for Public Affairs, Georgia Arnold, said of the campaign, “When we spoke to UNICEF we said it would be great if we could use our creativity and help UNICEF with their amazing line-up of talent and see if we could match the two together.”

UNICEF cameras also went behind the scenes on several ‘Superfans’ shoots to capture the energy and excitement of the professionals and young players involved in the campaign and upcoming World Cup, the world’s largest sporting event.

The PSAs will be shown to hundreds of thousands of football fans before each of the 64 matches of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany this summer.

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Note to broadcasters:

The 30- and 90-second PSAs are available rights-free to broadcasters through www.thenewsmarket.com/unicef in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish and international versions. The PSAs are accompanied by video footage providing a behind-the-scenes look at how the spots were made. They will also be broadcast globally on MTV International, Nickelodeon and VH-1.